Upcoming Show: Cheyenne Marie Mize at The Mill Restaurant in Iowa City 7/29

Posted on July 23, 2010 by mike

If you haven’t heard of Cheyenne Mize before it is probably because her work tended not to be in the forefront of the bands she was in– at least not until recently. Hailing from Louisville, Cheyenne has been firmly entrenched in the folkie scene there. Supporting bands and artists like Arnett Hollow, Maiden Radio, Ben Sollee, Saredren Wells, Thomas A. Minor and the Picket Line, Joe Manning, The Health & Happiness Family Gospel Band, Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore touring band for Dear Companion. (Thanks to Question the Pop interview with Cheyenne for that list).

Last year Cheyenne partnered with Louisville’s reknowned son, Bonnie “Prince” Billy aka Will Oldham on an EP of duets titled Among the Gold. Among the Gold is a collection of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century standards like “Beautiful Dreamer” and “Let Me Call You Sweetheart.” Louisville indie label Karate Body pressed an insanely-limited edition (250 copies) 10″ colored vinyl pressing of it and only made it available at shows and at their online store. It is available for digital download from Cheyenne’s Bandcamp Page. The EP certainly demonstrated Cheyenne’s talents and beautiful soprano but really didn’t show her songwriting abilities. Cheyenne will be releasing her first solo record titled Before Lately on September 28th and it will be on another Louisville label sonaBLAST! Records.

Where Among the Gold was steeped in the old-time standards it was made of, Before Lately is more contemporary mix of ingredients. The album is drifting and dreamy– introspective, really. The album is a very stripped-down affair with very little percussion and utilizes all of Cheyenne’s talents: vocals, violin, guitar and piano. The songs move between ethereal shoegazer-ish production on tracks like “Path” and “Lull” and more direct singer-songwriter style tracks like on “Doctor” and “Not.” Before Lately made an impression on me right away and tugs my disappointment that it isn’t available right now!

Cheyenne is currently on tour and will be making a stop in Iowa City on Thursday 7/29 at The Mill Restaurant opening for Portland, OR band Archeology. This will be the late show, which starts at 10PM and is a 21+ show. Tickets are $6. I’ll be interested to hear how these songs translate to the stage. You can listen to the whole album via this nifty player:

Here is “With(out)” from Before Lately.
With(out) by CrashAvenue

Cheyenne Marie Mize on Tour:
Sat Jul 24 – The Denver Post Underground Music Showcase – Denver, CO
Sun Jul 25 – The Denver Post Underground Music Showcase – Denver, CO
Tue Jul 27 – Czar Bar – Kansas City, MO
Wed Jul 28 – Vaudeville Mews – Des Moines, IA
Thu Jul 29 – The Mill – Iowa City, IA
Fri Jul 30 – Uncommon Ground on Clark – Chicago, IL
Sat Jul 31 – White Rabbit Cabaret – Indianapolis, IN

Click Here for Cheyenne Marie Mize’s website

Click Here for Cheyenne Marie Mize’s MySpace Page

Click Here for Cheyenne Marie Mize’s Facebook Fanpage

Click Here for Cheyenne Marie Mize’s page at sonaBLAST!

Click Here for Cheyenne Marie Mize’s Bandcamp Page where you can listen to Among the Gold and Before Lately.

(Free Download) Karyn Paige – “Want To” from Hola Mademoiselle

Posted on July 7, 2010 by mike

When it comes to HipHop I tend to favor the musical pastiche typically purveyed by the Bay Area. Some of this is because I really cut my HipHop teeth on the seminal Bay Area label artists on Solesides (later Quannum) including Lateef, Lyrics Born, DJ Shadow, Blackalicious. In some respects California HipHop is considered a second generation from the early New York days of HipHop and rap, but it might be this distance that makes California HipHop more of a converged sound with funk. Of course these days, Left- and Right-coast isn’t so much a discernible distinction. These days there are still stylistic differences between, say Jay-Z and Snoop but beyond that there has been a lot of cross-pollination so it is difficult to make the same comment about today’s HipHop and rap.

Still, the last releases from Lyrics Born, The Gift of Gab, Blackalicious and DJ Shadow really show a very wide view of their art and I think shows them pushing the boundaries of what defines HipHop.

It’s this cultural and musical diversity in the Bay Area that fosters artists like singer Karyn Paige who, after several years of working and performing with various bands and musicians including the Jazz Mafia collective as well as Lyrics Born (who also worked with the Jazz Mafia Orchestra “Brass Bows and Beats) and Chali 2na (of Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli), is ready to release her first solo record titled Hola Mademoiselle which will come out fall of this year. Prior to that she will release a digital EP this summer titled The KP EP.

The releases promise to be a “diverse blend of pop, R&B, New Wave, Soul and Funk” and this is certainly delivered in the first single being offered as a free download titled “Want To.” “Want To” was co-writted and produced by Joe Bagale and Matt Berkeley of the Jazz Mafia with Karyn and to me really recalls the purple funk heyday during Prince‘s reign in Minneapolis– the funky analog synths and beats that were the signature of Mr. Rogers Nelson and the production duo of Jam and Lewis. It is a super-catchy track and has already made it to two of my car mp3 mixes! I can’t wait to hear the EP and album when they come out!

Do yourself a favor and grab this mp3.

Click Here to listen to “Want To” by Karyn Paige from her upcoming release Hola Mademoiselle.

Click Here to visit Karyn Paige’s website and sign up for her mailing list

Click Here to visit Karyn Paige’s Facebook Fanpage

Click Here to visit Karyn Paige’s MySpace Page

Hiss Golden Messenger Transforms Country Hai Tracks on Vinyl as “Root Work”

Posted on June 21, 2010 by mike

When I heard that the next Hiss Golden Messenger release was going to be made available on vinyl I was pretty excited to hear it. I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t going to be new HGM songs but an EP to be titled Root Work based on a live radio session in August recorded by Irene Trudel on WFMU. I’d had the tracks that would make up Country Hai East Cotton since 2007 and the album proper came out last year. I was getting pretty hungry for some new material from MC and company!

In appreciation for the general love that playbsides.com gives Hiss Golden Messenger, MC Taylor sent me the mp3’s of Root Work to peruse in April. “At first, I wasn’t sure about commercially releasing this material as it appears on Country Hai,” he said in a later e-mail, ” but it sounds so good– through no fault of mine, really– that I thought it would make a really nice limited-edition vinyl release. That particular lineup of the band was special, in that we only played together three times (this recording was the second time), and it all came together.”

The lineup for Root Work is Slim Diamond (MC Taylor) on vocals and guitar, on bass and lapsteel is regular HGM member Scott Hirsch, Yair Evnine on guitar, Terry Lonergan on percussion, Robert Stillman on piano and Fender Rhodes, and Crowmeat Bob on horns.

The resulting six-track recording is less a re-hashing of Country Hai East Cotton than it is a re-imagining of the source. I think this is partially a product of the chemistry of the musicians as well as MC and Scott benefiting from a perspective two years after the original album was recorded. The fresh perspective seems to allow the band to exercise some light improvisation.

“John Has Gone to the Light” goes from an almost five-minute track to an almost nine minute song. The band spends more time riding the loping dub beat before succumbing to the double reggae-time chorus.

“Lion/Lamb” actually gets edited from the epic Traffic-ish “Lion” on Country Hai down to a just over three-minute stripped down folky strumming guitar and mandolin.

“Resurrection Blues” was a cursing post-death two-beat march on Country Hai. On Root Work it becomes a bluesy sax-driven gospel swagger. The call-and-response makes me think that the Blind Boys of Alabama should cover this version!

“O Nathaniel” is stripped and slowed down to reveal the rich palate of the vocal melody at the sacrifice of the more pronounced double-time Fleetwood Mac glissando payoff at the chorus on. But, on the Root Work version of this song we get a really great guitar solo as the song wraps up that would make Lindsey Buckingham take a second notice.

“Isobel” doesn’t vary much from the original version, but it is clear that MC is comfortable hanging on notes in his vocal making the whole song a more relaxed and bluesy experience. The new mix of instruments and in particular the piano riffing is a welcome development to the song.

“From a Lincoln Continental (Boogie Interpolated)” I thought this Tim Rose cover from Country Hai ended up sounding a bit like a “Digging In The Dirt”- period Peter Gabriel due to the clockwork approach to the instrumentation. On Root Work “Boogie” gets a welcome extended swampy blues workout. The song ends up sounding a lot more like the original Tim Rose version this way.

I caught up with MC last week and the pre-sale is up on the Heaven & Earth Magic Company website. Heaven & Earth Magic Company is the record label MC and Scott Hirsch started for their projects. Their first release was Country Hai East Cotton. The vinyl release of Root Work is a frighteningly limited one-hundred records– each numbered with covers designed by Brendan Greaves and hand screened by MC! The record is $15 (around $20 shipped) and comes with a digital download from bandcamp so you can get 320Kbps mp3’s or FLACs (or just about anything else actually). This is a steal, frankly. If you’re not into the vinyl thing, you can just order the download for a very reasonable $6 or you can pick individual tracks for $1 apiece.

The debate over the versions of the songs between Country Hai East Cotton and Root Work is akin to debating the merits of red versus white wine. Either is appropriate depending on when you’re drinking. I’m looking forward to drinking in the subtle tannins and liquorice notes of the vinyl pressing of Root Work.

Click Here to listen to tracks from Hiss Golden Messenger’s Root Work and to order digital download or vinyl pressing with digital download.

Mike Droho & The Compass Rose – And The World Makes Sense Again (Review)

Posted on May 28, 2010 by mike

If you’re looking for some live music this Memorial Day Weekend, a good way to kick things off would be to catch Madison group Mike Droho & The Compass Rose. Winner of the Project M “Reality” Songwriter Competition hosted by 105.5 FM “Triple M” last year (playbsides favorite Anna Laube is competing this year and is still in the running!), Mike’s blend of acoustic pop rock draws easy and frequent comparisons to other guitar-toting singer-songwriters like Brett Dennen and Jason Mraz. Armed with his band The Compass Rose (Ida Pajunen on violin and Anthony Lamar on “vocal percussion” aka “beatboxing”), Mike’s songs on his latest release And The World Makes Sense Again are built on perfect vocal harmonies, surrounded by a delicate layer of strings and propelled with the unique “urban” rhythm.

I find Droho has a very strong sense of the pop hook and the songs stick in my head for a good while after listening to them. The album has a breezy upbeat spirit about it (even if the topic of the song isn’t)– not particularly confrontational– although not particularly edgy either. The songs are well-balanced and structured with great melodies. I think the standout track on the album has to be “It Was Not Me” with its opening horns and foottapping rhythm and strumming. In fact, it was upon hearing this track on Droho’s website that I wanted to hear the rest of the record. This song is available to stream from the Music page on his site. I recommend checking it out. Other songs that stand out for me are “Shame on You” and “Jesus Louise.” There is something about “Shame on You” that reminds me of the pining pop songs of the 80’s (in fact, the chorus reminds me of Star Search-winning band from Minneapolis Limited Warranty). “Jesus Louise” sounds like it might have escaped from a Barenaked Ladies album.

One criticism I have with The Compass Rose as a backing band might be that– at least on the album– the beatboxing isn’t featured enough to be a key part of any of the songs and the beats could just as easily been accomplished with a drum machine. In my opinion if you’re going to use “vocal percussion” you should showcase it. Where are the Fat Boys-style breaks? On “What Holds You Down” the beatboxing really limits what could have been a song that builds to a driving rhythm. The intro has a stripped down guitar and vocals and you get a sense of building energy up to :58 and damn if I didn’t want a fill and a driving backbeat for the rest of the song, but it doesn’t deliver that promise.

I think that And The World Makes Sense Again shows the potential of what Droho can achieve as a musician and songwriter. This album has some strong songs on it that I bet really sound great in a live setting. The album falls short in some respects, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that I think he’s a strong songwriter and one I’ll be keeping an eye on.

Mike Droho and the Compass Rose will be recording a session with Iowa Public Radio’s Java Blend radio show with host Ben Kieffer today. This show is slated to air on the weekend of 6/18. After that show, they will be playing at Gabe’s Oasis tonight. The show starts at 9:30PM and tickets are $7.

Click Here for the Facebook Invite for Mike Droho at Gabe’s Oasis Friday Night

Click Here to visit Mike Droho’s MySpace Page
Click Here to visit Mike Droho and the Compass Rose Facebook Fan Page
Click Here to visit Mike Droho’s Website

Pieta Brown Paints Her Masterpiece in One and All (Review)

Posted on April 9, 2010 by mike

“I always wished I could paint, but I really can’t. My sisters Constie and Zoe got that gene. So, I made a painting here– of one kind.” — Pieta before a live performance of “Over You”

I’m awoken by the flash and rumbles of the first spring storm. 5:55 AM floods into my retinas rinsing recent dreams into faint images. In my head there’s music– like every morning– a score played over the final scenes of my sleeping film I’ll soon forget.

I roll on to my back and look at the runny light reflected on the ceiling and listen to the music in my head– it’s “El Guero” from One and All.

Shady grove & tattoo sleeves
Pink birds in a pile of leaves
All night
All night
All night long

Honeysuckle along the street
They say you never missed a beat
Records piled against the wall
Old bass & a wrecking ball

In conjunction with the Mission Creek Iowa City music festival that happened last week where she performed, Pieta Brown put her new CD One and All (Red House Records) in a couple stores to sell a week before the release date of 4/6. Over lunch last week I ran down to Iowa City to RSVP to pick up a copy. The week I’ve had with it has apparently contributed to the music that plays in my head.

One and All is the first full album and the second release (the first being the EP Shimmer, produced by Don Was) by Pieta Brown on her new label home Red House Records. Red House has become kind of a center of the Eastern Iowa Blues and Folk scene. Starting with Pieta’s father Greg Brown they also have Greg’s long-time friend Dave Moore as well as The Pines which has Bo Ramsey’s son Benson in it. I’ve mentioned here before that I think the partnership of Pieta and Red House is one that ultimately should help foster her career.

After years following Bo Ramsey’s career, I find myself gravitating to albums that he produced or played on and One and All has that pull for me as well. As with the previous six releases dating back to her self-titled 2002 release on the now-defunct Trailer Records, her constant collaborator Bo Ramsey takes a key role in the sound of the album providing his vocal harmonies and trademark clean country blues guitar riffing. Joining Bo and Pieta is their regular bass player Jon Penner and drummer Steve Hayes. JT Bates who played drums on The Pines newest album also played on One and All— apparently together with Hayes on some songs according to an entry on Bates’s blog. Brian Wilkie from Chicago Bluegrass band Majors Junction provides some tasty pedal steel. Pieta’s sister Constie contributes harmonies and Bo’s son Alex Ramsey provides keyboards on “Faller.” Additionally, Joey Burns from Calexico returns the favor of Pieta and Bo contributing vocals and guitar to “Slowness” on their 2008 album Carried to Dust by contributing cello and accordion.

Pieta delivers a gentle– almost dreamy vocal over the balanced and paced instrumentals. This is music with a sense of place more than an urge of destination. We could go somewhere but let’s sit on the porch enjoying the breeze blowing through the screen door.

“Making a record always reminds me of taking photographs because it is just one moment in time, or just one version of the way that song is– kind of like a photograph.” — Pieta in her “Making of One and All Documentary“

This quote as well as the one at the beginning of this review helps frame– if you will– the lyrics to Pieta’s songs for me. The lyrics on One and All are made up of images– the “shady grove and tattoo sleeves”, the “Pink birds in a pile of leaves” of “El Guero.” The passage of “You got your fine shirt/I got a cheap cigar/You’re in the sunshine/I’m in a dirty bar/Back by the jukebox/I’m lost in the sound” sets up two people in different places in their lives and in their surroundings.

These are the parts of her “painting– of one kind.”

We’re never told who these portraits are of– or even the full story. These paintings are not studies in the hard oil of realism, but more the impressionistic water color. The fading dream recounted to another. The details leave, but it is the feelings that hold.

If art is in the eye of the beholder, it is because we can become part of a piece by completing it with our particular experience. With One and All we are left to interpret this picture with our own details– the jukebox at our local bar, our own records against the wall, the pile of leaves at our feet. Pieta has created in One and All an album that draws the listener in– a welcomed– if gently engaging soundtrack.

Note: In concert, Pieta does offer a clue about one song on One and All. In “Faller,” Pieta describes seeing Tom Petty backstage at a show she and Bo played at McCabe’s Guitar Shop opening for JJ Cale in March of 2009. The story goes that JJ ran into Tom Petty and Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers at a bar across the street and invited them to come sit in on his set. As a result, Bo and Pieta met Tom. Pieta sings “I see you leaning/against the wall/looking like/You might fall.” I picture a tall, lanky Petty precariously leaning on a wall. “It’s a long hallway/for a small place/A crowd of people/In your face.”

Click Here to visit Pieta Brown’s website.

Click Here to download or listen to “Faller” from One and All.

The Right Now – Carry Me Home (Review) & Upcoming Shows

Posted on March 7, 2010 by mike

I’m always concerned when an established band decides to change their name.

Chicago band The Right Now started life back in 2005 as R&B/Funk band Eli Jones and the Bare Bones by Brendan O’Connell. A live EP was recorded by this band in 2006. A few lineup changes and the addition of Stefanie Berecz as lead vocals prompted the truncating of the name to just Eli Jones. The album Make It Right was released in 2007 under this moniker while still continuing to hold true to the band’s R&B and Funk influences.

History shows that bands with names that seem like they would belong to one person tend to be confusing– just look at Jethro Tull, for example. Add in the fact that Eli Jones didn’t have the domain name for the band and the name was becoming somewhat cumbersome. So, it was the switch in name to The Right Now in 2009 that allowed the band to kind of re-invent itself. All of the fans of Eli Jones who had seen the high-energy shows in the small bars across Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa were going to follow the band even after the name change.

When I saw the band in December of 2008 at Mahoney’s in Cedar Rapids, they were still called Eli Jones, but had already incorporated a lot of the songs that would make up their new album which they had planned to release in 2009 into their live sets. Carry Me Home is the first release by the band under it’s new name, and listening to the CD, I was taken back to that show with its memorable performances of “Ain’t Going Back,” “I Could Really Hold On,” “Doing Nothing,” “Carry Me Home,” “Nobody,” and “Before I Know Your Name.”

Getting ready for this review, I pulled out my copy of the Eli Jones album Make It Right for comparison. It’s an album I listened to quite a bit back when the band was rolling through the area. I thought it was really good– certainly the work of a band accomplished in R&B and Jazz, but felt ultimately it didn’t capture the energy of their live set. Make It Right really seems to be the sound of a band in a transition– some of the tracks have the familiar throwback R&B strut, while other tracks evoke a more jazzy step.

Carry Me Home is the result of a very focused effort in the studio, apparently. The whole CD sounds like it was recorded in one marathon session– a balanced, almost live-to-tape sound. It has a polished production for certain, but not at the risk of the continuity. I find myself listening to the whole album when I put it on– I anticipate the next track at each song.

In some respects Carry Me Home is an album out-of-time– at once holding true to a retro R&B sound with its horns, stomps and claps and sneaking in a more current R&B edge in the form of lead singer Stefanie Berecz powerful lead vocals.

The album runs the gamut of emotion and energy from bright, sunny Tower-of-Powerish horn-driven songs like “You Will Know,” to the Motown harmony-mixed with clean funk picking “Before I Know Your Name” to the distinctly Southern R&B swing of “Doing Nothing” to the slow burner “Carry Me Home.” “Before I Know Your Name” was co-written by Stefanie and Brendan O’Connell (the conductor of this Soul Train) to her then-unborn child– the idea of which makes me smile when I listen to the lyrics.

It’s also worth noting that The Right Now also has a 7″ out of a non-album track “7 to 10” which they recorded in Memphis in September 2009 at Scott Bomar’s Electraphoic Recording Studio live to 2″ 8-track tape! The flip is “The One You Love” from the album. On the return trip they took the master to Larry Nix at the legendary Ardent Studios who cut the plates. They hand-delivered the plates to United Record Pressing in Nashville and got a tour. Here is Brendan’s MySpace blog article about the experience (with video!).

It seems there are a lot of notable acts delivering the Stax/Motown-influenced sound today– Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings seems to be leading this front, certainly the last Amy Winehouse album (which uses members of the Dap-Kings), Joss Stone— so it takes a strong but distinguishable effort for a band to not get lost in the comparisons. It’s clear that The Right Now shows respect for the legacy of R&B, Soul and Funk that came before it, but in my opinion the band is building from that tradition.

One can consider the new band name as the answer to the question of what period of popular music they might draw from– no specific period, but obviously writing and performing in The Right Now.

The band just kicked off a run of shows which will bring them back to Eastern Iowa in April. On Friday, 4/16 they will be taping a second Java Blend show (the first as The Right Now), doing an on-air on IPR and hitting The Blue Moose Tap House. On Saturday, they’ll be performing at The Redstone Room in Davenport opening for Daphne Willis and hitting their favorite Iowa stop, Mahoney’s in Cedar Rapids on Sunday, 4/18.

Visit The Right Now Store to order Carry Me Home or the “7 to 10″ 7”

Click Here to visit The Right Now collection at archive.org for some streaming and downloadable live shows.

Click Here to visit The Right Now website.

Click Here to visit The Right Now Facebook Page

Here is where they Twitter.

Click Here for The Right Now on Bandcamp

Click Here for their last.fm page.

Click Here to visit The Right Now iLike page with videos and mp3’s.

Upcoming Shows (from MySpace):

Mar 8 2010   Bullfrog Brewery – CD Release Show!    Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Mar 10 2010    Puck Live – CD Release Show!    Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Mar 11 2010    Groove – CD Release Show!    New York, New York
Mar 12 2010    The Saint    Asbury Park, New Jersey
Mar 13 2010    Shadow Lounge – CD RELEASE SHOW!    Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Mar 18 2010    Vocalo 89.5FM – In-studio    Chicago, Illinois
Mar 18 2010    Fearless Radio – Live In-Studio    Chicago, Illinois
Mar 18 2010    WLUW – Radio Free Chicago (Interview)    Chicago, Illinois
Mar 19 2010    WGN Television    Chicago, Illinois
Mar 19 2010    Lincoln Hall – CD RELEASE SHOW!    Chicago, Illinois
Mar 26 2010    This Must Be The Place    Lemont, Illinois
Apr 9 2010    KSDK – Show Me St. Louis    Saint Louis, Missouri
Apr 9 2010    The Gramophone – CD Release Show!    St. Louis, Missouri
Apr 15 2010    The Frequency w/ Unicycle Loves You    Madison, Wisconsin
Apr 16 2010    Java Blend    Iowa City, Iowa
Apr 16 2010    KRUI 89.7 FM – In-studio    Iowa City, Iowa
Apr 16 2010    The Blue Moose Taphouse – CD Release Show!    Iowa City, Iowa
Apr 17 2010    Redstone Room    Davenport, Iowa
Apr 18 2010    Mahoney’s Pub    Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Apr 24 2010    Downtown Holland Groovewalk    Holland, Michigan
Apr 30 2010    Marly’s Pub – CD Release Show!    Springfield, Illinois
Apr 30 2010    Alice at 97.7 – Studio A Sessions    Springfield, Illinois
May 17 2010    Cosmic Charlies    lexington, Kentucky
May 20 2010    Rogue Tavern w/ Deep Fried 5    Birmingham, Alabama
Jun 4 2010    Upfront & Company    Marquette, Michigan
Jun 5 2010    Upfront & Company    Marquette, Michigan

Moby Shows His Natural Blues With New Band The Little Death (review)

Posted on January 15, 2010 by mike

When most people think about Moby’s career, they are probably aware that he is an artist of the electronic variety– samples, beats, synths, dance music, techno. In 1999, when Moby released Play, songs from it were everywhere due to some very innovative licensing of every song to movies, television, and for use in commercials. At the time he was criticized by his peers for what was then seen as artistically and literally selling out. I remember some comments from DJ Shadow at the time in an open chat forum where he commented along those lines (I can’t find my backup of the chats, and Solesides.com doesn’t have them linked). Moby said at the time that he did this so that people could hear his music. Considering that he wouldn’t get any radio play in most markets it was a smart move to gain exposure. Looking at it these days licensing is really de rigueur with any release, and DJ Shadow as well as many other acts have resorted to some licensing.

Since the release of Play, Moby has recorded four more albums– 18— released in 2002 could be considered a continuing of the formula Moby established with Play, and indeed enjoyed the same success– 2005’s Hotel which was recorded with live vocals and instrumentation, Last Night which was a tribute of sorts to 80’s and 90’s techno, and Moby is currently touring in support of his latest album Wait For Me. Wait For Me is a mournful, introspective record. His goal was to make a “very personal, very melodic, very beautiful” record, and I think he’s achieved that. On most of Moby’s records he will throw in a slow emotional track or two– “God Moving Over The Face of the Waters” is one that comes to mind for me as a favorite– so it isn’t much of a stretch to have a full album of these songs.

In 2008 following the release of Hotel and the subsequent tour, Moby formed a band called The Little Death with singer Laura Dawn and guitarist Daron Murphy and drummer Aaron A. Brooks. Laura provided lead vocals on Hotel and was part of the Hotel tour with Murphy. Since the album had live instrumentation the tour had a full band. My wife Sherry and I saw the Hotel tour show at First Avenue in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, Laura Dawn was sick and couldn’t perform that night, but the show was high-energy and I felt that Moby’s catalog really translated well to live instrumentation.

The first thing that I noticed with The Little Death’s self-released debut album was that it sounds very little like a Moby album. It is funky and bluesy with Laura Dawn pulling out her Dusty in Memphis blues belting. The album kicks off with a nice guitar lick carrying Laura’s opening monologue, “Love can be the most beautiful thing in the world… but it can also tear your heart out…” which kicks into a groove that would sound at home on a Black Crowes album. “Children gather round ’cause I’m going to tell you how it works out” a cautionary tale of love’s blinding effect. “Raise your hand if you’ve known love,” she commands.

“All basic tracks were recorded in one or two takes, live in the studio to 2-inch tape, with the whole band playing together in one room. No songs were harmed by auto-tune, click track, or multi-band compression in the making of the album” — from the liner notes to The Little Death.

In a recent interview with TapeOp Magazine (#73, p. 32) Moby said, “When I recorded Hotel, I really wanted to record everything the ‘right way.’ Everything was recorded flawlessly. Unfortunately it had very little character.” It seems to be this reaction by Moby which provides the modus operandi for The Little Death. The whole album builds with a constant groove built of the great catalog of R&B riffs delivered like a band with years of time together. The albums payoff comes from the immediacy of the performances captured directly to tape.

This album is at its very core tales of love from a woman’s perspective, and we get the whole picture from lifting, hopeful wishes to biting, cursing (literally– if you don’t like colorful language and innuendo you may want to avoid this release), scornful warning , to hot impassioned eros all surrounded by throwback guitar bass and drums and the supporting harmonies of The Death Threats (backup singers Jamie Rae and Cherie Martorana). A symphony of the female condition, perhaps.

As with anything that Moby works on, The Little Death doesn’t escape his mark. In addition to all of the passion conveyed, there is an underlying spirituality and gospel delivered by The Little Death. The torchy ballad “Won’t Ever Let You Down Again” would sound at home on Play if the vocals were delivered by a scratchy old 78 of field recordings made by Alan Lomax. Certainly its love-during-the-apocalypse theme has that timelessness about it. “Let me hold you while the ground shakes,” Laura sings, “the buildings keep a coming down.”

The Little Death isn’t breaking any new ground with their first release– there are a number of strong-female-lead bands with their roots in the ground where Janis Joplin once stood– Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals come to mind– but for The Little Death coming out of the gate with such a strong and clear declaration of purpose and with the experience and guiding hand of Moby only great things can come.

The Little Death’s album is available now as a digital download from their website and out on 1/26 in physical release.

Where is the 180g gatefold vinyl release?

Click Here to visit The Little Death’s Website

Click Here to visit The Little Death’s MySpace Page

Click Here to download “Won’t Ever Let You Down Again”

Overheard on TV: Helvetica Documentary Soundtrack

Posted on January 4, 2010 by mike

A friend of mine recommended that I watch the 2007 documentary dedicated to the typeface/font Helvetica titled plainly enough Helvetica. When I saw it show up in the NetFlix streaming recommendations for me, I watched it.

Helvetica the typeface was designed in 1957 by the Swiss type foundry Haas to be a general-use typeface. It was an immediate success and adopted virtually everywhere since, and enjoys constant use to this day. This documentary by Gary Hustwit looks at the typeface and its success and shows how its existence impacted graphic design over the years. Hustwit also produced the amazing Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, the Robert Moog documentary Moog, and the Death Cab For Cutie tour film Drive Well, Sleep Carefully.

I found myself very engrossed in the film as I have been a type geek ever since my first Macintosh in the 80’s. The movie talks a bit about the reaction to standard typesetting practices in the 90’s during the “grunge” movement, which yielded a couple of my favorite magazines Emigre and Raygun which were the leading edge of that movement which I was a fan of which included the work Vaughan Oliver did with v.23/23 Envelope for 4AD records.

One of the things that hooked me right away was the soundtrack to the movie (of course!). It has a collection of really great Post Rock and related artists on it like El Ten Eleven (an impressive NINE songs!), Sam Prekop and The Chicago Underground Quartet. Here is the song listing from imdb.com:

“Thinking Loudly” – El Ten Eleven
“Lorge” – El Ten Eleven
“Central Nervous Piston” – El Ten Eleven
“My Only Swerving” – El Ten Eleven
“Fanshawe” – El Ten Eleven

These songs are from El Ten Eleven’s 2005 self-titled release.

“Meow”- Motohiro Nakashima
“Potala” – Motohiro Nakashima

These songs are from his 2004 release And I Went to Sleep.

“Helvetica 2” – Kim Hiorthoy
“Helvetica 9” – Kim Hiorthoy

Kim Hiorthoy is, according to his Wikipedia article, a Norwegian electronic musician. He’s been recording since 2000 and has a number of releases out. These two tracks are obviously done specifically for this movie.

“Every Direction is North” – El Ten Eleven
“Bye Annie, Bye Joe, Bye Michael, Bye Jake” incorrectly titled “Bye 2” – El Ten Eleven
“Hot Cakes” – El Ten Eleven
“3+4” – El Ten Eleven

These songs are from El Ten Eleven’s 2007 release Every Direction is North.

“Seqy Chords 3” –Sam Prekop
“Seqy Solo” –Sam Prekop

These songs by Sam Prekop of The Sea and Cake appear to be written specifically for this release– or at least only appear here. I wonder if these songs are somehow related to the CD that came with his photography book?

“IPT2” – Battles

This song is from the Battles 2006 release on Warp called EP C/B EP.

“Tunnel Chrome” – Chicago Underground Quartet

This track is from Rob Mazurek’s Chicago Underground Quartet project’s 2001 self-titled Thrill Jockey release.

“Magic Step” – Sam Prekop

This song is from Prekop’s 2005 release Who’s Your New Professor on Thrill Jockey.

“And Then Patterns” – Four Tet

This song is from the brilliant 2007 Four Tet release Everything Ecstatic

“Pelican Narrows” – Caribou

This track is from his 2005 Merge Records release The Milk of Human Kindness.

“Shine” – The Album Leaf

This track is taken from The Album Leaf’s 2006 release on SubPop Into the Blue Again.

This is a pretty great collection of bands– mostly ones that I really like and admire– and the two artists that I hadn’t heard of (Nakashima and Hiorthoy) I plan to check out. I’m not the first blogger to comment on the soundtrack, and one of them even made an iTunes mix of it. It would be great if they’d release this soundtrack– if only the ones that are specific to this movie from Sam Prekop and Hiorthoy!

This Land is Your Music Show #3 at The Mill in Iowa City 11/19/09 (review)

Posted on January 3, 2010 by mike

Thursday night, November 19th, was the last of the three shows that comprised Pieta Brown‘s Artist-in-Residence at the Mill Restaurant in Iowa City. Each show had different opening acts and gallery exhibits, and Pieta used these shows to try out different performance configurations. The first show was a solo acoustic show, the second was a duo show with Bo Ramsey, and this show was a full-band show. The band, dubbed “Skyrocket” was Bo Ramsey on guitar, Steve Hayes on drums and Jon Penner on bass. Effectively this her “Dream #9” band with a swap of drummers from Jim Viner to Hayes. The opening act was Dustin Busch, whose photographs were in the gallery and who joined Pieta on stage as well for the first show. The gallery for this show was an installation of Sandy Dyas’s photographs.

I was looking forward to this show because I really enjoyed seeing Pieta with a full band back in June and this is as close to her records as she can sound live. I think she has really come into her own as a songwriter, musician and performer since her self-titled debut in 2002. Certainly her solo, duo and trio performances are the style that is associated with her, but fronting a band on stage is a new mode for her, and one I hope to see more of because, frankly, I like the drive of the drums behind her songs. Talking to her after the show about it, I get the idea that she doesn’t want to put too much focus on the full-band configuration over the other forms. She isn’t going to tour the full band, I’d say– if only because of the complicated logistics and economics of touring a full band.

Dustin Busch aka “Dusty B” opened the show with a solo acoustic set. Dustin’s set was comprised of covers and original songs which showcased his “hill-country” blues style. Dustin’s amazing slide guitar style was coupled with a characteristicly mush-mouthed vocal delivery which reminded me of R.L. Burnside or T-Model Ford. He had a microphone pointed at his feet so that his foot stomping could be picked up. I was really impressed with the set– I’d like to see him play again sometime when he’s in the area. I had a great conversation with him after the show about old blues artists– its clear his passion is in this as he possesses a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of this topic. I could have talked to him for hours! I managed to capture his set-closer which was an instrumental cover of Al Murphy’s “Quail is a Pretty Bird” with my iPhone which you can see below. This song is typically a fiddle tune, but Dustin transforms it for guitar.

Because the stage was occupied by more people, it left less room for the neat stage props, so Stan Crocker created a new set incorporating some of the original props, but included a steer skull and an interesting blanket of lights you can see in the above picture. I wish I would have gotten a wide-angle shot without the band– it was really cool.

Pieta brought out her new Reverend Flatroc electric in Rock Orange, although in these pictures under the red lights it appears that the guitar matches the pink in Pieta’s outfit. She was playing it through a Fender Silverfaced Twin Reverb, which according to an interview with Nick Stika I read with Bo Ramsey in Premier Guitar, is actually modded to a blackface circuitry. This means that it is a later Fender tube-based amp from the CBS period, but has been modified to the same circuitry a pre-CBS “blackface” spec. (sorry about the guitar gear geek stuff…).

The set was great, and included a run of songs that were very suited to the full-band experience. It was pretty evident that the Bo/Steve/Jon backing band was a good choice– they play together very frequently and it shows how easily they can be dropped into a setting like this. The crowd started warming up to the band and some people started dancing. I’ve said it before– I really like hearing Pieta with a full band– the energy is palpable and infectious.

Pieta was her typical humble and gracious self– thanking people for coming out and thanking the Mill for letting her try her “experiment” and stated that she hoped to be able to do this again.

This show’s art exhibit was one that I was really looking forward to– the Sandy Dyas installation. She utilized the backroom to its fullest with a sort of “mini” installation of her “Heaven & Earth” exhibit which will open at Simpson College in Indianola, IA on January 11th and will run through February 5th. She is using the walls as a larger canvas– if you will– where she is hanging photographs in groupings in relation to each other– the juxtaposition of which offers an interpretation of the subjects wider than the individual photos. Graphic arts is about the use of space, and this exhibit will be an interesting and compelling exercise.

After it was all said and done, these shows accomplished what Pieta set out to do– she got an opportunity to work out some of her material in different stage settings– a sort of warm-up to the touring she will be doing in support of her Shimmer EP and the upcoming full length this year on Red House. She also used these shows as a way to show the community of artists that exists in Eastern Iowa. I moved back to Eastern Iowa to follow a career opportunity, but I was also very excited to come back to the area to see the music and arts scene I grew up around. I hope that Pieta attempts another series of shows like this– there are a lot more artists and musicians who could benefit from the exposure Pieta could bring to them in this setting.

Pieta Brown and Skyrocket Setlist:

Rollin’ and Tumblin’
In My Mind I Was Talkin’ to Loretta
You’re My Lover Now
I Don’t Want To Come Down
Rollin’ Down The Track
Bad News
West Monroe
Hey Run
Lovin’ You Still
Still Runnin’
How Many Times
Faller
Red Apple Juice
Looking the World Over (Memphis Minnie cover)

Dustin Busch Performing “Quail is a Pretty Bird”

Pieta Brown and Skyrocket performing “Hey Run”

Click Here to see my full flickr set of pictures from the show.

Click Here to read my review of the first This Land Is Your Music show on 11/5/09

Click Here to read my review of the second This Land Is Your Music show on 11/12/09

Larger Than Life: Dave Matthews Band, Ben Harper and Gogol Bordello in 3D (Review)

Posted on December 29, 2009 by mike

As I previously posted, movie theaters across the nation had a new live concert film/experience titled “Larger Than Life in 3D” which featured Dave Matthews Band, Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 and Gogol Bordello which showed from December 11th through the 17th. I attended the 9PM showing on Wednesday, December 16th at the Wehrenberg Theater in Cedar Rapids. The movie was a 3D experience of three 2009 concerts with each of the bands.

I haven’t heard any reports about attendance of the showings, but the dark theater was empty– an exclusive showing for me, apparently. Maybe the fans of these bands had seen earlier shows, maybe it was a factor of folks out for Christmas shopping. Unfortunately, I was planning to give away some teeshirts, posters and lanyards promoting the event, but ended up bringing the pile back home with me. I did give away a couple teeshirts anyway. I think that this is a pretty cool event idea and the 3D and surround aspects of seeing a live act, while not the same as experiencing a live show with the crowd is very much enhanced over just seeing a video or even just a movie of a concert.

The movie kicked off with short sets from Gogol Bordello and Ben Harper. I haven’t seen either of them live– video or otherwise, so I was interested to see them.

Before the movie started there were previews of some upcoming 3D movies– a cute preview to the new addition to the Toy Story series which should be out in 2010. The Spanish-language Buzz Lightyear had me laughing out loud– looks cute. I also saw the preview for the new Tim Burton film Alice in Wonderland, which is apparently a sequel of sorts to the original story with an adult-ish Alice returning to Wonderland. In addition to those trailers I saw a trailer for another 3D concert movie from the folks at inconcert3d– in February there will be a “Best of Lollapalooza” movie which looks cool, and the trailer dropped that there will be a “Best of Austin City Limits Festival” in 2010 at an unspecified date. I’m sure that the ACL Festival footage came from the same shows that provided the footage for the Dave Matthews Band set.

Following the trailers they showed Alberta Cross performing “Old Man Chicago” from the Livestrong stage at Austin City Limits festival. I hadn’t heard them before, but had heard of them from their Daytrotter.com session (click here).

First up was a short but high-energy set from Gogol Bordello. The two songs performed were effectively the last two songs before the encore of their nine-song performance at the All-Points West Festival in Jersey City, NJ from August from this year. Pretty crazy set– the band played in a frenzy. Very Eastern-European folk rhythms. I thought it sounded pretty great, but I think it would have been better if the set would have been more than two songs and actually at the show.

Following Gogol Bordello was a three-song set from Ben Harper and the Relentless7 excerpted from their performance at the Mile High Festival this year. I was really impressed with their set. Ben Harper was on fire laying out his bluesy approach which reminded me of Lenny Kravitz and Jimi Hendrix a bit. I really wish there would have been more Ben Harper! His set was enough for me to download his new album White Lies for Dark Times and order the 180g 2 LP version! I will admit that I hadn’t been following him at all. There was a friend of a friend in Minneapolis who, in the 90’s, was a big Ben Harper fan and had seen him a couple of times at First Avenue– he tried one night to get me to listen to some songs. At the time I wasn’t really very taken with what he played for me and I guess that stuck with me until I saw these songs in the movie. I was immediately taken with the slide guitar parts. Apparently the creation of the Relentless7 band sparked a new direction for Ben Harper– one that I think has some genuine soul and blues to it. I recommend catching him live with his new band.

Finally, Dave Matthews Band was up and played nine songs from their Austin City Limits Festival set. I was a fan of the first two Dave Matthews Band albums– especially Under the Table and Dreaming which was played on Rev105 and Cities97. I really hadn’t heard anything quite like them at the time– the passionate, slightly soft vocal delivery from Dave Matthews and the overall polish that really helped deliver the songs. Like many, I heard all of the huge singles– “Crash Into Me,” “The Space Between.” I just didn’t really keep following him because I didn’t feel that he really developed much over the years. It isn’t that I don’t like Dave Matthews, I’m just not really compelled to listen to him much–in my opinion he just hasn’t developed based on his studio output. Where Dave really shines is in a live setting. He has one of the great live bands, really– strong and able to really carry the show, I think. I wasn’t very familiar with most of the songs in the movie, except for the “Burning Down the House” Talking Heads cover, “Ants Marching,” and I had heard “Why I Am” from the new album. None of the big hits were in this set which seemed to focus on his new album Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, which is a tribute to the late DMB member LeRoi Moore. But, it is the live performance where he shines and he was clearly working for this performance– his shirt was soaked with sweat, and he was in constant movement, clearly enjoying the music often with a big grin on his face and doing his little shuffle dance.

After the DMB set, during the credits we got to see one more performance from Gogol Bordello– “Wanderlust King” which was cool. Effectively, then both of the opening acts got three songs. Looking around the empty theater I wondered if the show would have been more enjoyable with others in the audience. I expect it would have been– but traditional movie courtesy is to be quiet during movies– are the crowds more participatory during these live concerts– do they cheer? Maybe I’ll find out in February at the Lollapalooza movie if they have it in Cedar Rapids.

Gogol Bordello Set:
Start Wearing Purple
Think Globally, Fuck Locally
Wanderlust King (during credits)

Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 Set:
Lay There & Hate Me
Keep It Together (So I Can Fall Apart)
Serve Your Soul

Dave Matthews Band Set:
You Might Die Trying
Funny The Way It Is
Seven
So Damn Lucky
Shake Me Like a Monkey
Why I Am
Burning Down The House (Talking Heads cover)
So Much to Say
Ants Marching

Time to play b-sides

Mike Roeder muses over things musical

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